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17
Food and Drugs Act, 1955—Food and Drugs Authority
The Middlesex County Council is the Food and Drugs
Authority for the district and I am indebted to the Chief
Officer of the Public Control Department, Mr. J. A. O'Keefe,
for details of action taken in this district.

The sample noted as unsatisfactory was that of a bottle of
milk which contained a piece of glass. The milk bottle was
found to have a damaged rim and there was no evidence that
the bottle had not been damaged whilst in the custody of the
purchaser. No further action was taken.
119 premises were inspected under the Merchandise
Marks Acts, 1887-1953 mostly in connection with the marking
of certain foodstuffs with the country of origin. The majority
of the infringements detected were of a minor nature and were
dealt with by verbal warnings. Two official cautions were
issued, one to a retailer and another to the retailer's shop
manager and one successful prosecution was undertaken under
the main Act against a retail greengrocer for applying false
trade description of weight to carrots.
The labelling of Food Order, 1953, requires pre-packed
food to be labelled with its common or usual name (if any)
and, in the case of compounded food, the names of the ingredients.
It also requires that the name and address or registered
trade mark of the packer or labeller be given. 509 articles of
pre-packed food were examined at 78 premises but no infringements
were detected.
In addition, advertisements and the labels of pre-packed
foods were scrutinised to detect false or misleading descriptions.
No serious infringements were disclosed but corrective
action was sought in one or two cases. For example, where
slimming claims were made in association with lemon juice